We were absolutely delighted to receive a donation of £500 from Hitchin’s popular Football for Fathers organisation (FFF) as part of their end-of-season Awards.

FFF evolved from the original idea of a weekly kick-around for football-loving dads in spring 2017, to a group of over 80 dads of all ages and abilities, paying subscriptions, playing two sessions a week on professional, floodlit astro-turf, summer, tournaments, awards evenings, charitable fundraising and offers of international friendlies! (https://footballforfathers.co.uk/)

FFF nominated Bobby Lee as their first-ever Clubman of the Year, and in addition to his trophy, kindly donated £500 to DS Achieve.

DS Achieve is looking to expand our team of trustees to include someone with a strong finance background and accountancy qualifications. The role is a volunteer role.

If you think you might be interested or you know someone who fits the bill, please have a look at the role profile and get in touch!

To apply, please send your CV and a covering note explaining your interest in the role to info@dsachieve.org. Additionally, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we can arrange a time to chat.

On 2nd September, we held our official launch for DS Achieve and what a party it was! We were absolutely delighted that around 40 children and their families joined us at Soft Play City to celebrate - it was lovely to see so many old and new friends coming together to enjoy the day. We'd like to send a HUGE thank you to everyone who made it such a special event!

We created DS Achieve to help families support their children and young people with Down Syndrome to achieve their potential and we're focusing on providing new education and training programmes. Our website Events page has all the details of our latest training events and our fantastic Little Achievers programme - both kicking off in September. But that's just the start... We've got big plans for all age groups which we can't wait to get started on, and at the launch party it was great to get the chance to get YOUR input on what you'd like us to do! Please do email us at info@dsachieve.org with all your ideas. We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us and DS Achieve so far. We can't tell you how much it means to us to receive all your kind words and good wishes... and watch this space for lots more exciting news to come!

We are seriously in awe… One of our supporters, Stuart Cleworth, has completed the Zurich IRONMAN challenge on behalf of DS Achieve.

The IRONMAN involved a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile cycle, and a marathon (26 mile run). Even the thought of one of these activities exhausts us, but Stuart started his training early on and worked really hard week-by-week to prepare. It was a gruelling event, with Stuart managing to complete it in only 13hrs 9mins and in 33 degree heat.

On top of such an incredible achievement, Stuart also raised an amazing £1,120 for DS Achieve. CONGRATULATIONS Stuart and a huge THANK YOU1!

Hi everyone, Kelly, Gillian and Michelle here. We have some exciting news….

We are delighted to announce that we have launched!

After many months of hard work to get DS Achieve registered with the Charity Commission, choose and design the services we will initially provide, get our policies in place, create our website and much more, we are now up and running! And we would love to celebrate with you at our launch party on 2nd September at Soft Play City.

So please come and join us, meet our team and find out more about how we can help your child/young person and your family. Go to our Events page to book a FREE ticket. You can also check out our other events and workshops here.

What better way is there to celebrate this important day than spending time with friends and eating cake!

To raise awareness about Down Syndrome and also some funds for DS Achieve, Michelle hosted a coffee morning at home on World Down Syndrome Day and invited local friends. Teamed with Bill and Cath, her parents-in-law, they welcomed more than 30 guests over the course of the morning to provide tea and coffee and a selection of beautiful cakes. The generosity and support of the guests, as well as several who couldn't join, was, quite frankly, amazing!

DS Achieve is delighted to confirm that total fundraising came to £470. Thank you to all who donated their time, cake and their money to make the morning very enjoyable and a huge success.

Friends and family danced until they dropped on Saturday evening, at a black tie charity ball in aid of the MS Society and Down Syndrome charity, DS Achieve.

On Saturday 14th October, guests at the special event, organised by Michelle Bolton and Katherine Jardine, helped to raise £3,600 to be split between the two charities. Held at the Noke Hotel in St Albans, guests were treated to a three course meal and coffee, incredible live music from local band Number 7 (no7music.com), and more music provided into the early hours by The Noke resident DJ. Professional photographer Bobby Lee, of Rapid Eye Images, was on hand to take stunning pictures of the guests, from which he very kindly donated all profits.

Thanks go to a large number of local businesses, including Centurion Golf Club, Lussmans, The Beech House and Emma Fletcher Photography, for very generous prizes for the silent auction and the raffle. Also to Rachael Partis (https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RachaelPartisDesign) for donating the beautiful design work on the posters, menus, and seating plan, as well as a raffle prize.

Michelle said "The MS Society and DS Achieve are very important charities to Kat and I and we wanted to organise something fun to help raise money for such worthwhile causes. We are delighted with how it all went. It seems everyone had a great time, and raised money at the same time... what could be better! We've had a number of people ask if they could let us know about tickets for next year's event, which we hadn't even considered, so that's a fantastic indicator that the night was a success. Thanks to everyone who made it happen."

If you'd like to get involved in fundraising for the MS Society or DS Achieve, please visit the web pages: